College Athletes and Body Image

Howard Schatz's images of the best female athletes in the world. Huffington Post.

On a daily basis, the average college woman will most likely knit-pick their body image apart when they look into a mirror.  Unrealistic beauty ideals have been glorified through marketing schemes and Hollywood productions to set a high, yet surreal, standard.  Female collegiate athletes in particular, however, experience pressure from their sport to look and feel a certain way.  In a recent survey completed by ESPN, 201 DI female, student-athletes were asked thirteen pertinent questions about how their body image has been affected by athletics.  Some of these questions included: Have you ever or currently have an eating disorder? How many hours/week do you devote strictly to physical condition of your body? How many concussions have you been diagnosed with? Do you feel pressure to be pretty? Do you lie about your weight? Are you afraid of becoming to muscular? Have you ever had a coach call you fat? I found these questions to be indirect for the study that they were completing and that the study did not receive the accurate results it deserved. The survey should pertain to body image and what the female athletes perceive as body image. For example, an rower does not have the same body type as a softball player, and both will have different opinions on their ideal body images. Asking questions such as “Do you feel pressure to be pretty?” only makes the athlete being surveyed wonder if they are currently pretty enough. The phrasing of the thirteen questions makes it seem that female athletes competing at a high level are secure in their body image, but when the ESPN survey is compared to other studies this statement is denied.

ESPN survey question. ESPN Women.

Female collegiate athletes have the perpetual risk of developing eating disorders and behavioral patterns due to the aesthetic and high demands of their sports. According to a study completed by Stanford University and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), college athletes are more likely to have or develop eating disorders than the average college student.  Females, both collegiate athletes and non-athletes, have a 10% higher risk for developing eating disorders while in college than their male counterpart.  This study suggests that body image pressure is linked to gender, the correlation between weight and performance, athletic body stereotypes, and the type of sport. An additional study surveyed female NCAA DI, II, and III athletes in basketball, softball, track, cross country, volleyball, soccer, tennis, swim and dive, and ice hockey.  The study’s results found that 49.2% of DI and 40% of DIII athletes had eating disorders; 24% of DI and 30% of DIII athletes reported personal body dissatisfaction; an DIII athletes reported higher bulimia behaviors and preoccupations with weight.  DIII athletes might have reported these statistics due to the lack of team nutritionists, athletic trainers, health programs.  Although DI athletes have greater access to these privileges, female athletes at this high level continue to experience body image pressure and the demand to maintain a team’s specific image.  For example, sports, such as gymnastics, running and diving, are judged on body leanness, thus more emphasis is placed on body image and female athletes experience higher incidence of eating disorders. 

ESPN survey question. ESPN Women.

Female athletes face the contradictory challenge of building muscle to be dominant and powerful in their sport, yet abide by the social expectations of femininity.  In turn, this causes female athletes to be at a high risk of eating and behavioral disorders.  In the studies listed as examples above, females have shown to have a tendency toward perfectionism, which relate to the psychological attitudes.  The pressure to succeed both in their sport and maintain societal expectations has the ability to create anxiety in female athletes about their body image.  Therefore, female collegiate athletes with often struggle with body image more than the average college student, due to the pressures in tied to their athletic performance.  Female athletes need better support from coaching and athletic staffs to combat these risks before they consume the life of the athlete.

Simone Biles, the best female gymnast in the United States and arguably the world, has been criticized for lacking femininity.  She has been criticized for having a seemingly masculine body image, as shown by her incredibly toned muscles, especially in her legs. Flogymnastics.